Less Than Three
by Calyn
Summary: It takes longer than that to make a hybrid. AU Shades of Earth scene. (FIF #1)


**Across the Universe belongs to Beth Revis.**

 **A crappy but cathartic spitefic. Because this scene was so patently stupid it threw me right out of the story, and I just really want to yell about it. Breaks off on page 391.**

* * *

"What is that? What are you doing to my daughter?" Dad roars. He struggles, trying to jump out of the chair and save me, but the rogue leader throws him back with a malicious grin.

"In just a few moments, she won't be human anymore. Not genetically at least. You set that bomb off, you kill her as well. She's a hybrid now too."

Dad's face goes completely blank. The anger and fear are washed away as if someone has run a sponge across his features.

My father is nearly catatonic. The room is full of enemies. There is ice in my veins and tears in my eyes. Time stops for an eternal moment—

"Nine-tau-three-five."

His voice is dead, empty of all emotion. A zombie. Different pain races through me, the thought that my father will sacrifice me to save the others hitting me like a punch in the gut. I nearly choke on it. Am I worth so little to him?

"Authorization requires the full code," says the voice from the speaker.

I force my streaming eyes to blink and reopen, desperate to see my dad one last time, to force him to watch as he kills me. His eyes are fixed on mine, nearly drained of life as he slumps in the chair.

Against my head, the .38 shifts slightly. "If we die, she dies," Chris says. He's uneasy now. The blackmail isn't working the way it was supposed to.

"Amy," Dad says, staring straight at me. "I love you." His eyes shift to meet Chris's, and he takes a deep breath. " _Omega_."

My throat is nearly closed from the pain, but somehow a shriek makes its way out. " _Daddy!_ "

The intercom beeps. "Code confirmed. Commencing detonation in five, four..."

"You bastard," says the leader of the hybrids, a mixture of disbelief and panic in his voice. "Your _daughter._ "

"...three, two..."

"Close your eyes, Amy," my father says quietly, and I still can't believe this is happening, that he's thrown me away, that I'm about to die, but I obey. I squeeze my eyes shut, and with my last second I think _I love you, Elder._

"...one. Detonation."

There's a brilliant flash of light behind my eyelids, and a puff of warm air, and then—

The gun falls away from my head. All around, I hear glass clink and shatter on the ground. And the pain _vanishes_ , so suddenly I stagger. My eyes fly open instinctively.

Glass weapons litter the ground. Chris is gone from my side, the .38 lying useless beside my foot, atop a heap of clothes. Piles of clothes dot the room, but everyone has disappeared. Everyone but me and Dad.

"My wife, God rest her soul," says my father into the utter silence, "was a superb geneticist. She tried to teach me some of her work. I couldn't understand much, but I learned enough."

I open my mouth, close it, and open it again. My voice comes out high and shaky. "D-dad?"

A second later, I'm wrapped tightly in his arms. " _Amy._ "

"What—what happened? Why is everyone gone? Why am I still here?"

In response, he hugs me even tighter. "I'm sorry, I couldn't let them know it wouldn't work, they could have killed you. I had to pretend or Chris might have shot you anyway."

"Dad, what _happened_?" My knees buckle, and we sink to the floor. Both of us are crying now.

"The hybrids were under the impression that it is possible to completely alter a person's DNA within twenty seconds. They were wrong. It's impossible to create a gen mod that makes any permanent changes in less than three minutes. And Centauri-Earth formulations won't work on Sol-Earth citizens—our immune systems are too different."

I'm so confused. "Then the pain..."

"The pain was your body rejecting the serum. Like a poison. It might have killed you in another few minutes. But the biological bomb was implanted in hybrid cells, so when it was triggered the serum was destroyed. That's why the pain stopped."

"What about everyone else?"

"Vaporized. Every hybrid cell imploded."

I shudder, and he hugs me tighter.

"It's about the most painless death I can think of. And now we're safe." I feel a tear plop onto my head. " _You're_ safe."

"But—the FRX. What if they make us their new slaves?"

Dad snorts. He pulls away, gets to his feet, and then gives me a hand. The adrenaline hasn't quite gone yet, and I'm still a little shaky.

"If we disable the space station's tesseract homing signal, they can't quick-jump here. They'll have to take the long way round—the slow journey, decades long. By the time they get here, we'll have stockpiles of solar weapons. We have Phydus and Inhibitor. We don't need the FRX, and we have nothing to lose. They can _try_ to make us slaves." He helps me over to the com. "And besides, we have you. We have me. And we have Elder."

Dad smiles at me, and I feel a matching smile tug a bit at the corner of my mouth.

"So. How about you com your boyfriend, and we'll get this independence show on the road."

* * *

 **Look, Beth, there is _no_ _way_ I will believe it is possible to completely alter a human's DNA in a matter of seconds. Give it a couple minutes at least. And that's assuming the unaltered parts of the body don't start rejecting the altered ones like sometimes happens in organ transplants.**

 **And I'm sorry, but writing someone as the villain through the whole book and then trying to say "They're just doing it for the good of the others! They're not the enemy after all!"? It. Doesn't. Work. They're still the villains here. One good motive does not nullify a thousand evil actions.**


End file.
